Meanwhile, the school district’s athletic and activities director J.D. Hill wrote in his complaint that Burke criticized him for hiring too many people of color and said he was “making the district look too black” and turning her district into a “ghetto.”

Both Burke and the aforementioned employees are black. In a statement issued by the school district following her resignation, Burke said: “As an African-American woman, born in a charity hospital in New Orleans, I learned at an early age what it’s like to be the victim of discrimination.”

The district investigated the allegations, but the Tukwila School Board rejected the complaints, prompting staffers to take their grievances to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is still conducting its inquiry.